Murali Vijay

Murali Vijay is an Indian cricketer, born on 1st April 1984 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He is the opening batsman of the current Indian test team. He is a right-handed batsman and bowls occasional right-arm offbreak.

Table of Contents

1. Career
2. Background

Career

Domestic Career

Murali Vijay made his debut in the Ranji Trophy for Tamil Nadu in 2006 after having caught the eye of Bharat Arun during his college cricket days. In his debut season, he scored 628 runs in the tournament falling behind only Robin Uthappa and Manoj Tiwary among the top run scorers.

The following Ranji Trophy, Vijay scored 582 runs at an average of 58.20 which highlighted his consistency in Indian cricket’s premier domestic tournament. He was involved in a 462-run partnership with Abhinav Mukund in a Ranji Trophy and fell short of the world record by just 2 runs. His performances were recognised with a maiden call-up to the Indian team to play against Australia during the 2008-09 season.

IPL Career

Murali Vijay was signed by the Chennai Super Kings during the second season of the Indian Premier League in 2009. He was one of their valuable players when they won the tournament in succession in 2010 and 2011.

In 2010, he scored 458 runs at a strike rate of 157. The following season he scored 434 runs including a 52-ball 95 in the final to help them lift the trophy.

In 2010, Vijay hit an IPL hundred off 46 balls against Rajasthan Royals which was the fastest in IPL history then. He was the highest run-getter in the 2010 Champions League in South Africa, which CSK won.

Delhi Daredevils bought him for 5 crore at the 2014 auction, but the investment did not work greatly and he moved to Kings XI Punjab in 2015 and was back among the runs and also was appointed captain of the side later. He missed the 2017 IPL due to injury and was bought back by CSK in 2018 after going unsold on the first day of auctions. He was retained by the franchise for the 2019 edition as well. The stylish batsman has over 2000 runs in the IPL and will be looking forward to making an impact in the upcoming edition of the tournament.

International Career

Test Career

Vijay made his Test debut against Australia in the Fourth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, in Nagpur, in November 2008 after Gautam Gambhir was banned for a game. He got starts in both innings as he scored 33 and 41. Murali Vijay returned to the Indian team when he was called to play against Sri Lanka at Mumbai in 2009. He scored 87 and shared an opening stand of 221 with Virender Sehwag.

He received another opportunity during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2010 and scored 139 in the second test at Bengaluru sharing a 308-run partnership with Sachin Tendulkar. Vijay was brought back to the Indian team during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2013 to replace an out of form Gautam Gambhir. He scored 167 in the second test at Hyderabad to help the Indians win the game. He followed it up with 153 at Mohali to score three consecutive 150+ scores in three test matches and shared a 289-run opening partnership with debutant Shikhar Dhawan.

In 2014, when India toured England, Vijay scored 146 in the opening test at Trent Bridge. He scored an important 95 in the second innings of the next Test at Lord’s to help India win a historic test match. He finished the series as India’s leading run-scorer.

Murali Vijay scored 144 on Day 1 of the test match against Australia in Brisbane in 2014-15 which is the second highest by an Indian on Day 1 of an overseas test match.

After suffering a few injuries and playing quite sporadically in 2016 and 2017, Vijay returned in the home series against Sri Lanka scoring a couple of tons in a series winning effort. He was called for the 2018 India tour of South Africa and England too but could not perform upto his own standards. Midway through the series against England, Vijay was dropped and KL Rahul opened the batting.

ODI Career

Vijay debuted in ODIs against South Africa in the third and final one dayer on 27 Feb 2010. He scored a brisk 25 runs off 16 balls. Since then, the opportunities have been hard to come by as the stylish batter has only played 17 ODIs and scored 339 runs.

T20 Career

Murali Vijay was selected for 2010 ICC World Twenty20. He fared poorly in India's disastrous campaign averaging just below 15 and failing to provide good starts in all the matches. Vijay has played 9 T20Is in his career where he has scored 169 runs. His last T20I came against Zimbabwe in 2015.

Background

Murali Vijay was born on 1 April 1984 in Trichy, Tamil Nadu to Murali and Lakshmi. He started playing cricket only at the age of 17 at the college level, and caught the eye of Bharat Arun to play junior-level and Ranji Trophy cricket for Tamil Nadu.